SHAS­TRI BOODAN

Agri­cul­ture in schools will get a boost when the Min­istry of Food Pro­duc­tion and Ed­u­ca­tion launch an aquapon­ics pro­gramme. Food Pro­duc­tion Min­is­ter De­vant Ma­haraj said so when he de­liv­ered veg­eta­bles, pro­duced by the URP, to the Jay­alax­mi Chil­dren's Home at Long­denville, Ch­agua­nas.

Ma­haraj said agri­cul­tur­al pro­grammes in schools have de­clined and on­ly a hand­ful of schools have food pro­duc­tion and prac­ti­cal ex­er­cis­es in agri­cul­ture as part of their cur­ricu­lum. He said the pro­gramme will in­volve rear­ing of fish and will even­tu­al­ly be ex­pand­ed to in­clude or­gan­ic ma­nures pro­duced from the fish project for use in a veg­etable hy­dro­pon­ics project. Ma­haraj said this sys­tem will work well in schools where space is lim­it­ed.

Ma­haraj said his min­istry's re­newed thrust in­to schools came af­ter he spoke with farm­ers who said they were dis­ap­point­ed that agri­cul­ture was los­ing sig­nif­i­cance in the na­tion's schools. Ma­haraj said farm­ers told him their in­ter­est in agri­cul­ture was ig­nit­ed dur­ing their days at school.